How to Verify a TG-RERA Project or Agent Registration

Before you pay anything for a plot or flat in Telangana, the most useful public check available to you is the state RERA register. Every sizeable project — and every agent who markets one — is required to hold a registration you can look up free of charge on rera.telangana.gov.in, the portal of the Telangana Real Estate Regulatory Authority, which now brands itself TG-RERA (you may still see the older "TS-RERA" styling in brochures; the authority itself uses TG-RERA following the state's TS-to-TG renaming). This guide explains what the numbers mean, how the search works, and the warning signs that should stop you.

What a TG-RERA registration actually is

Under Section 3 of the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016, a promoter cannot advertise, market, book, sell, offer for sale or invite anyone to purchase in a real estate project without first registering that project with the state authority — in Telangana, TG-RERA. The Act's definition of a real estate project expressly includes the development of land into plots for sale, so an open-plot layout is covered just as much as an apartment tower. The Telangana search screen itself lists Plotted Development as a project type alongside Residential, Commercial and Mixed Development.

Two exemptions matter to you as a buyer. First, registration is not required where the land being developed does not exceed 500 square metres, or where the project has no more than eight apartments, inclusive of all phases. Second, under Telangana's 2017 Rules, ongoing projects whose building permissions were approved before 1 January 2017 were kept outside the registration requirement. So an older, already-completed layout may legitimately have no RERA number — but any recent layout of meaningful size that is being actively marketed to you should have one.

What a P-number and an A-number mean

Telangana project registrations carry a certificate number beginning with P; registered real estate agents carry a number beginning with A. These are not decorative. Under Section 11(2) of the Act, every advertisement or prospectus a promoter issues must prominently mention the registration number and the authority's website. Under Section 9, an agent cannot facilitate the sale or purchase of property in a registrable project without holding a registration, which in Telangana is valid for five years and renewable. If a brochure, hoarding or listing for a large project carries no P-number, or the person selling to you cannot quote an A-number, that is itself a compliance failure — not a paperwork technicality.

How to run the search, step by step

• Open rera.telangana.gov.in and use the Search Registered Projects and Agents link, which takes you to the official search screen (hosted at rerait.telangana.gov.in).
• Choose whether you are looking up a project or an agent.
• Enter the details you have, complete the captcha and run the search — the register is public, and there is no fee or login.
• Open the project's full record rather than stopping at the results list.

If a promoter's project simply does not appear, do not accept a verbal explanation. Ask for the registration certificate and check the number on the portal yourself.

Reading the registration record

The record behind a P-number is where the real verification happens. Check that the promoter's name on the record matches the entity signing your agreement — not a sister firm or an individual director. Check that the village and survey numbers on the record match the land you are being shown. Check the proposed date of completion, because a registration runs to the completion date the promoter declared, and extensions under Section 6 are tightly limited — broadly, an aggregate of one year outside force majeure. Registered promoters are also obliged under Section 11 to keep the record updated, including quarterly progress reports, so a record with stale or missing updates tells you something about the promoter's discipline.

Red flags to treat seriously

• "Applied" is not "registered." An application acknowledgement is not a certificate. Until the authority grants registration and issues a P-number, Section 3's bar on marketing and selling still applies.
• Expired or lapsed registration. If the declared completion date has passed with no extension on record, the registration has run out even though the number still exists.
• Revoked registration. The authority can revoke a registration under Section 7 for default; a revoked project cannot lawfully be sold to you. TG-RERA publishes a list of revoked projects and agents on its homepage — check it.
• Advertisements without a RERA number, or an agent who cannot produce a current A-number.
• Mismatches between the record and your paperwork — different promoter entity, different survey numbers, more units than registered.
• "RERA exempt" claims on a large layout. The exemption is narrow: 500 square metres or eight apartments, or building permissions approved before 1 January 2017. A new multi-acre venture does not qualify.

Why an unregistered large project is a real risk

Registration is what switches on the Act's buyer protections. A registered promoter must route 70 per cent of the money collected from buyers into a separate project account to cover land and construction costs, cannot take more than 10 per cent of the price as advance without first executing a registered agreement for sale (Section 13), and answers to the authority's complaint process, which any aggrieved person can use under Section 31 through the dedicated complaints portal (complaints-rera.telangana.gov.in) linked from the TG-RERA homepage. Buy into an unregistered project above the exemption thresholds and none of that machinery is working for you: there is no disclosed record to hold the promoter to, no quarterly reporting, and a seller who is already operating in breach of Section 3 before you have paid a rupee.

What to check before you pay

• The project appears on the TG-RERA search with a P-number, status intact and completion date not lapsed.
• The promoter entity on the record matches the seller on your draft agreement.
• The survey numbers and village on the record match the brochure and the land shown to you.
• The agent quoting the deal holds a current A-number.
• The layout's development permission (HMDA or DTCP, depending on location) matches what the RERA record discloses.
• The title trail is independently checked — an encumbrance certificate from the Registration and Stamps Department is the companion check to RERA, not a substitute for it.

Registration status can change between your first visit and your payment date, so verify the current record on the official portal on the day you transact — and have a lawyer review the title and agreement before any money moves.